Quote of the Day

"It's only impossible if you think about it!"

The Pirate Captain
The Pirates! Band of Misfits.

Summer Sabbath

I love me some summer. The unscheduled, long light, barefoot, bathing suit days are gifts that I get to share with my kids. I must admit that I have not been intentional about their "God time," which I guess is OK. There are plenty of unintentional moments - like Small Sister playing "church" in her bedroom, preaching and teaching her flock of American Girls and stuffed animals. Pointing out what a great artist God is at a beach sunset...He always manages to throw in a couple of colors we've never seen before. Praying for family members and friends in need at night, when we have a little more time to meander and bedtime is a moving target. I love that they are spending time with older Christian girls in the neighborhood who are babysitting for us and swimming with them in the afternoons. Our mother-daughter Bible study will be joining with a middle and high school girls Bible study for a service project in July. I'm all over any opportunity for my girls to spend time with these awesome older girls, who are on fire for their faith.

One of my neighbors is doing a boys' Bible study at their house, they've titled Fishers of Men. They fish in a nearby pond, eat a big breakfast together and listen to a Bible story, which they retell in their own words and then discuss. Brilliantly simple.

Another family I've heard is leading Backyard Bible Study for friends at their elementary school. Different stations focus on a Bible verse or story with games, object lessons and rewards for memorizing verses.

And of course, there's Vacation Bible School going on all over town.

Some other ideas: keep a family gratitude journal or trade a faith/prayer journal among you. Take time to pray before trips or outings, playdates or a swim in the pool - give thanks for all the fun things you're getting to do and for the extra time you get to spend with them! If you can, consider volunteering. Maybe the kids will become interested in a cause that they can continue to work with during the school year. In my area, an example is MUST ministries, who solicits groups to make summer lunches for kids who may not have access to lunch when they're not in school. This is an easy way for kids to get involved, helping other children. It is especially important for Mom to continue to find a way to connect with the Holy Spirit in whatever way works best, since He will be THE source of our patience, wisdom and peace in these precious days, which can be trying, let's admit it. One of the benefits of kids sleeping in...I'm still waking up at 7:30 a.m., so I get at least an hour to have my coffee and spend time with the Lord.

Summer is designed to be a bit more laid back, less regimented and more "go with the flow." Use this time to continue to build your own faith and to lead your children in a way that creatively uses summer's unique character.

How do you make the most of your summer?

Comments are always welcome!

Renting our Faith

I was talking to a friend recently about a dream she had. I love to analyze my dreams, and I do believe the Lord can talk to us as we rest and our usual defenses are down. My friend's dream disturbed her because she dreamed that Jesus came back. He stood at the end of her street, bathed in a brilliant white light, and she felt the overwhelming urge to run into His arms. As she looked back at her house, she noticed her husband, who has not yet accepted Christ, standing on the driveway with arms crossed and a defiant look on his face. Heartbreakingly, her children seemed torn between who to follow - her or her husband.

As I considered this picture in the context of my own spiritual walk, I felt for her. It is a daunting and overwhelming responsibility to think of guiding our children in their walk, hoping and praying that the end result will be their own personal relationship with Jesus. Am I doing/saying all the right things? Is their Dad? Are we setting the best example for them? Are they getting mixed messages? Are we taking them to the "right" activities at church? Are we cultivating the "right" friends for them? I must admit: I don't feel up to it!! It's too hard, especially when my own faith is still a work in progress.

A new friend for whom I'm doing some writing said this to me recently: "Our children only rent our faith for a little while. At some point, they have to own it for themselves."

How true. And the great thing is, we don't have to sell God. He has every interest and desire to have a relationship with them that is totally outside of us, their parents. He is working in their lives, He is making Himself known to them, He is drawing our children to Himself with the tenderness, concern and unending love of Daddy. And He will do it all in spite of us, if He has to.

So, while we certainly have a very important role to play in their spiritual formation, what happens between them and God is between them and God. Knowing that we can trust Him with our children is the greatest comfort and relief we can have as parents!

Do you feel pressured to help your kids "find their faith?" How do you deal with it? Comments are always welcomed and appreciated.

Irreplaceable

I have a weird habit of reading entire books, standing up, in the bookstore. Actually, it's just a cheap habit because I'm on a mommy budget these days, although it's nearly impossible for me to leave a bookstore without something new, shiny and wordy in a bag. Anyway, I was standing up in a favorite bookstore on Mother's Day, reading this book and killing time until Mirror, Mirror started in the theater next door. 

It didn't contain anything earth-shattering - the main message was that you can still be highly successful in business without sacrificing your family and your faith. But I really liked the perspective of one CEO-type who said something along the lines of this: In the world, no matter how successful you are, no matter how important your job is, no matter how much you volunteer at church...you are replaceable. Someone can and will come up behind you and do what you're doing just as well, or even better. However, with the children you are privileged to parent...you are irreplaceable. No one else can be Dad (or Mom) to them the way you can. You cannot outsource your presence in their lives.

Comforting and daunting all at the same time, right? Daunting because it really makes you want to step up your game...No one else?  Comforting because no matter how God brought you together, how flawed you are, how many mistakes you've made, how you've failed in the past...God did bring you together. No one else. Perhaps He's made you for such a time as this (Esther 4:14).

How does being "chosen" to be your children's mom play out in your life? Do you feel chosen or do you feel like anyone could do "Mom" for them?

Comments are always welcome!

We'll All Be Princesses

My little Kingdom Watchers have been on a tear recently.

Little Sister refused to say her prayers one night. She LOVES to pray, and she always includes everyone we know, "the good people, the bad people and the whole world, the trees and the sky. And the flowers." But tonight she was really put out about something.

"Why don't you want to pray?" I asked, puzzled.

"Because I keep asking for the same thing but I never get it. I think God may get mad at me for asking for the same thing over and over."

"What are you asking for?"

I'm thinking, I'll bet it's a puppy. Oh Lord, how am I going to get out of this?

"I want God to come and bring His Kingdom on Earth and get rid of all the sin and make everyone perfect. Right now."

Blown. Away.

Now this kid is a prayer warrior. She has prayed some mighty prayers that I have seen God choose to answer. So, I'm kind of refraining from saying what I want to say, which is - "Do you know what you're praying for?? Ever heard of the Apocalypse?! Quit it!"

But instead, the Holy Spirit moves me to encourage her. To praise her persistence and to acknowledge that God has placed a strong desire in her to pray for this huge thing. He has promised us that it's going to happen. We just don't know when.

So she says, "How is He ever going to do it if He keeps making all these new people who have never heard of Him?"

"Well, honey, I don't know except that He's also making people like you who are going to tell the new people about Him."

A few days later, Big Sister expresses the same sentiment - she too is ready for the Kingdom to come and for everything to be made perfect. Wow, this is really a "thing" for these kids, the desire, the longing, for perfection and the absence of sin. I guess, as a jaded adult, I long ago made peace with the fact that life is far from perfect. Apparently, at some point, I gave up hope that it ever would be or could be. We call that being a "realist," no?

At the time, I was reading a book called "The Prayer Experiment" by Margaret Therkelson. She breaks down the Lord's Prayer, and I happened to be reading the part - Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven.
The author touches on two things that I was eager to share with Little Sis. First, the Kingdom is already here! It's inside us, according to Christ. Second, the Kingdom comes through our prayers.

...the heart yearning prayers of the Holy Spirit welling up in our times of prayer...a longing so overwhelming, so passionately powerful, so wistfully crying out for God's Kingdom to come to this broken world. Truly the entire creation is in pain even as we groan within ourselves for Jesus to come and set up His Kingdom here. At times in prayer we are nearly overcome with yearning for Jesus to come! These inexpressible, but powerful prayers are a means of praying in the Kingdom.

Wow. So by their wistful, longing prayers, they are actually praying in th Kingdom. My kids. MY kids. I'm gonna have to take a minute.

Where is He?

It was my desire, when I became a mother, that God should be part of my children's daily lives and conversations. I had no idea how to accomplish that really, as He was still not part of my own daily life and conversations.

One thing I used to do with Big Sister was take her to the window in the mornings after lifting her from her crib. I would open the blinds and say, "Look at the beautiful day God has made for us." One time, she began to peer out into the yard. She said, "Wheah is he? I not see him out dere." I pointed to her little chest and said, "He's in your heart." At which point, my very literal child pulled her shirt out and looked down. "Wheah?"

Of course, we have the usual suspects when we're trying to incorporate faith into our daily lives. Going to Sunday School (one hour out of 168). The prayer at mealtimes (often neglected). The prayer at bedtimes (often rote).

I think for little guys, it seems to work best if you yourself are constantly on the lookout for God in the details. They are discovering the world around them - point out how wonderfully God made that puppy they love or the creek they are splashing in. When they're hurt, pray out loud that God will heal them and take away the pain. If it's their feelings that are hurt, pray for the Holy Spirit to comfort them. As mine have gotten older, I've often been slapped in the face with a problem that I've looked at every which way and still cannot solve. Then I hear a little voice saying, "Mom, let's just pray about it." Duh, why didn't I think of that??

I can be reticient about praying with them for their little hurts and needs. I sometimes think, What if it doesn't work out? What if God doesn't answer, and it shakes their faith? I am learning to leave that entirely up to God...He knows better what they need and how they need to receive it. He's made promises to us, and as I meditate on them (sometimes clinging to them for dear life), He reminds me that He always keeps His promises, not  just to me but to them as well. He also shows me what He's made of when I'm allowed to witness answers to their sweet prayers. I've seen pain lessened, ouchies healed, feelings soothed and Comfort dispensed.

These are the ordinary miracles of being a mother.

What are some ways you see God in the details of your child's life? How do you invite Him into your daily lives?

Comments are always welcome!

The Time I Took Away Her Bible

Sometimes school is a hard place to be. Our kids can be mean to each other - no surprise to any mother who was once a kid herself. They are also highly invested in justice, which makes it tough to navigate the waters sometimes. You want to advise them to just stay out of things, but then again, you admire their chutzpah.

Little Sister is a compassionate little kid. Don't know where she got it. She was just made that way. In first grade, her teacher once contacted me to tell us they had run tornado drills in class, the ones where they're taught to crawl under their desks and cover their heads. Afterward, Little Sister had a question. "Where will you be, Teacher? How are you going to stay safe from the tornado?" Teacher said she'd never been asked that question before.

Since she could speak, Little Sister has inspected all of us for cuts, scrapes, bruises or bandaids. If she found any, she'd pat us and say, "Awwwww." She is also the one in our house who comforts anyone who is crying, including me, and she often tells us how lucky she is to be in our family.  Pretty cool for 7. She also has a temper like a house of fire, but that's a story for another day.

So, back to the shark-infested waters of elementary school. One morning, she seemed particularly disturbed about something that was going on. She surreptitiously snagged Big Sister's Bible, of which Little Sister has pretty much taken over the payments, and slipped it into her backpack. For some reason, I was seized by the need to take it out. The bus was feeling dangerous, somehow. I could just see someone picking on her over whipping out her Bible to deal with whatever reprobate was not acting right, in her oh-so-humble opinion. Those words mean so much to her. It made me a little sick to think of anyone criticizing her faith. She argued, but in the end, I "won." I felt bad about it all day. 

Later, we were on our way to the grocery store. Little Sister was happily reading her Bible in the backseat. When I opened the door to let her out of the van, she looked at me with a little twinkle in her eye. "Mom, look at the cover," she said. "It says 'Backpack Bible.' It wants to be in my backpack."

I've never taken it out again.

How do you encourage your child to take his problems to God? Do you need encouragement yourself?

Comments are always welcome.